(However, I now hear they are coming up here to Zellerbach too ~ hooray!)

It's funny -- Kirov/Bolshoi have gone to the LA area more times in the past ten years than they have visited SF, and I've never thought of LA as any major "dance" center. (Aside from the on-again/off-again LA Classical Ballet, that area doesn't have a resident ballet co. that I'm aware of.) But I do think the dance community up here might be (???) more in tune with their work than LA audiences. I haev no idea what kind of following there is down there though; I'm just guessing --pure speculation.

Catherine, the Kirov and other companies tour to LA instead of SF for a number of reasons, including lack of space in SF and a hunger for high quality dance in LA. This hunger could very well be the result of knowledgeable dance fans being deprived of high-quality ballet and modern dance companies in SoCal.

(BTW my comment above was --as I said-- just speculation, as I don't live in LA, so I don't know what that audience or dance community is like. But obviously they have the numbers, following and financial support to maintain that kind of attraction on a repeat basis, especially if world class Russian companies tend to go there, rather than here, first.)

From time to time dancers from the Mariinsky make their way to Tallinn to perform a Gala for their faithful fans in Estonia and much needed cash no doubt. Although this programme was not without interest, the patience of many was stretched when there was some 10 minutes of classical ballet and around 1 hour of modern ballet by A.Kononov performed by talented young Coryphees and Corps de Ballet members rather than “World Stars”.

The classical ballet was provided in two short bursts. To open we saw Julia Makhalina and Ilja Kuznetsov in the bedroom pas de deux from Roland Petit’s “Carmen”. On an empty stage to canned music and without a context, this extract never took wing and appeared under-rehearsed. With that we waved goodbye to Kuznetsov and Makhalina appeared once more to dance “The Dying Swan” and with her supple back and expressive arms it made for a very agreeable cameo. And that was that for the classical ballet contribution. The programme, on one sheet of A4 without images or biog, promised pas de deux from “The Corsaire” and “Swan Lake”, but these were nowhere to be found.

For the remainder of the evening we saw three one-act works by A. Kononov. I’ve tried to find his name on the Internet to at least find out what the “A” stands for, but without success. The best piece was based on Tenneesee Williams’ “Street Car Named Desire”, although the programme names the piece “Street Cat named Desire”. This may look like a typo, but in Estonian the words are totally different, but your guess is as good as mine. This tortured, ballet setting of the story of Blanche DuBois and her sister and brother-in-law is uneven and the role of Mitch is seriously underwritten. In addition the ending is abrupt following an extended bare foot solo by Anna Sõssojeva as Blanche. Nevertheless despite these caveats, the passion and commitment of Sõssojeva, Pavel Moskvito and Anton Lukovkin and the movement won me over. The music by Arvo Pärt also helped, especially a fine recording (uncredited) of “Fratres” for violin and piano.

“Harold and Maude” featured the 70 year old Alla Ossipenko as the old woman who rescues Harold from nihilism and suicide. Ossipenko gives a performance full of joie de vivre, but overall it was too sugary for me, despite Lukovkin’s emotional and fluent performance. Less satisfactory was a pas de duex “Romeo and Juliet” to Tchaikovsky with odd little hops and ungainly movement for the young lovers.

On the strength of “Street Car/Cat”, I willwatch out for Kononov in future, but again I was left with the impression that new choreography in Russia remains at an early stage of development.

Was the choice of programme an acknowledgment of the sophisticated taste of Tallinn ballet fans who have seen the modern “Coppelia” and “Cassandra” or a shameless piece of exploitation of the hunger to see Mariinsky stars? We’ll never know, but further performances with this balance of modern dance will soon see dwindling audiences in my view.

It is said that if a man is talented, he is talented in everything Ratings of different kinds, both reliable and even very funny, have recently become very popular in Russia. The artistic director and chief conductor of Russia's Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, Valery Gergiyev, is amused to see his name placed fourth or fifth in ratings of this kind. It is not clear why, but for some reason it is said that the man can influence the social and political life in the country. This is probably because of society's pressing need for building idols for itself.

The Artist of the World, who turned 50 recently, has won all kinds of prizes and awards and enjoys different titles after his name, starting from "demonic man" to "god." The maestro himself adds fuel to the fire: he is diligently working on his image, which is mostly made up by his talent and partially by rumors and conjectures.

The Kirov is touring Mexico this week with "Manon" and "Romeo and Juliet". The first performance of Manon was danced by Diana Vishneva and Andrei Merkuriev, and the second cast was led by Irma Nioradze and Ilya Kuznetsov who danced at the Royal Albert Hall gala last week.

Ready to Ruble Prices Rise as St. Petersburg Fest Kicks Off By Suzanne Sataline Special to The Washington Post Sunday, May 18, 2003; Page P01

Quote:

Once a budget traveler's paradise, St. Petersburg now commands premium prices: At the Mariinsky Theatre, home of the Kirov Ballet, a seat that was $5 a few years ago now tops $80. (Natasha Razina - Courtesy of the Mariinsky Theatre)

Prices at the Mariinsky seem to antagonize the most visitors. Russian law established the disparities of a two-tiered pricing system, and it is still maintained by the theater and a few other cultural institutions, including the Hermitage. (The state railways stopped the practice after its offices were pummeled with complaints.) A visitor seeking a Saturday night orchestra seat for the Kirov Ballet can expect to pay $80, as much as $120 during this year's White Nights, and even more if you buy from a hotel concierge. If a foreign visitor tries to sneak in with a native's $11 ticket, suspicious ushers demand proof of residency.

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